This invention relates to a card vending machine and more particularly to a machine which may dispense pull tab cards, breakopens, (pickle cards) or lottery tickets.
Pull tab cards, breakopens or pickle cards have become extremely popular the last few years. The pull tabs are normally dispensed by an attendant, waitress, bartender, etc. and are usually pulled from a stack of the pull tabs. The primary problem associated with the commonly employed method of dispensing the pull tabs is that it is difficult to control the money being handled by the dispensing person.
In an effort to avoid the necessity of the need for manually dispensing the pull tabs, some card dispensing machines have been previously provided but they do have several shortcomings. One shortcoming of the prior art machines is that they are unable to dispense various priced pull tabs. Further, a disadvantage of the prior art machines is that the dispensing means within the dispenser is less than reliable. To overcome the problems associated with the prior art machines, two of the named applicants herein previously devised a card vending machine and received U.S. Pat. No. 4,847,473 for their improved card vending machine. Although the card vending machine of U.S. Pat. No. 4,847,473 has met with considerable success, it has been found that it is desirable to be able to replace entire card holding and dispensing modules in the machine for ease of maintenance. Further, it has been found that the thickness of the cards may vary which can cause dispensing problems. This is especially true if the machine is going to handle not only pull tabs but may also handle lottery cards or tickets.
Therefore, it is the principal object of the invention to provide an improved card dispensing machine.
A further object of the invention is to provide an improved card dispensing machine including a plurality of individual card holding and dispensing modules which may be individually replaced thereby enhancing the maintenance of the machine.
Still another object of the invention is to provide an improved card dispensing machine having means thereon to adjust the dispensing mechanism to compensate for cards having various thicknesses.
Still another object of the invention is to provide an improved card or ticket dispensing machine which is economical of manufacture, durable in use and refined in appearance.
These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.